The After Build

Now the builders have gone I have been busy doing the finshing and trying to get the house back to some sort of normality. There's a lot to do. (More than I realised!)

While the weather has been good I've closed the old drive entrance and replanted some laurels to give us some added privacy. You'd think that replanting 5 laurel bushes is quite straight forward. All the gardening info says dig a hole about twice the size of the root ball - pretty straight forward what could go wrong. I started digging at lunch time, chatting to neighbours and regular visitors to the pub, by evening I was still at it as the regulars re appeared for the evening session. I'm sure it caused a great conversation piece over a pint or two as I took to using a 5ft breaker bar and sledge hammer with sweat dripping off me to break through the compacted ground to get to the soil and plant the bushes.

The Build

Its been a while since my last blog, but that's not a sign of inactivity, I just haven't got round to sitting down and blogging. During September, 3 builders moved in (well that's what it felt like) and we have been able to make the changes to our house that we have been planning for some months now.

It certainly feels like a transformation as we have changed the direction of car access to the garage and created a lovely kitchen diner with large French doors. The French doors will overlook a new garden space created through relocating the drive. I have put some before and after photos at the end of the blog.

At one point we had contractors working on the drive, electricians, builders, plumber and the guy fitting garage door. Never mind the project managing, the tea and coffee order required a spreadsheet and meticulous planning. 

Orlando to Fort Lauderdale

Well unbelievably 3 weeks have passed and we have come to the end of our family holiday in Florida. In the second half of our week in Orlando we visited Universal Islands of Adventure and then Aquatica water park. I was forced to overcome any fears of roller coaster rides by being 'encouraged' onto Dragon Challenge (not once but twice) although some incoming electrical storms meant that 'unfortunately' the Hulk roller coaster had to be closed.

The water park was good, the highlight was a 80ft drop slide, where you stand vertical in a capsule and the floor drops away from you, talk about an adrenalin rush, its bizarre that I'm not bothered about that but roller coasters make me nervous.

Orlando

Our Villa in Orlando is lovely, all the comforts of home plus we have our own pool. Its nice to be able to step out into the patio and take a dip. I've developed a technique of being able to float on the lilo with beer in hand without spilling a drop - although not when Meg is about!

On Sunday we went to Universal Studios. We had a great time, we met up with Gru and the minions, Shrek and donkey, The Simpsons and E.T. you forget how tiring it is walking round.

We went on as many rides as possible but gave the Harry Potter Escape from Gringots ride a miss with a 3.5 hour wait time.

We settled down to watch the parade at 7pm and went to get a drink, as I came to pay I realised my wallet with all the cash and credit cards was missing.

Key West & Miami, South Beach

While we were at our apartment in Key Largo, a lot of the Americans were doing day trips to Key West and saying how busy it was. One of our favourite American expressions so far, (apart from the usual 'awesome' which everything is, even when it really isn't, and everything is a 'good job' even if its an unmitigated disaster) was from a guy who had just come back from a day in Key West and clearly finding it a little too much said (in a good American drawl " this ole dawg, just wana  sit on the porch"

So we did wonder what we were driving into as we headed to the southern most point of the continental USA. The drive down was quite special going over the bridges that connect the keys, and thin strips of land with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic on the other. We arrived at our hotel in the old town of Key West, an old Victorian wooden house, veranda and all - so this old dog had a porch to sit on! The hotel was beautiful, and the majority of the buildings in the old town were of this type, some really lovely colourful houses.

Key Largo

No sooner had I got back home from the European beer and football tour, then it was time to repack and take off to Florida for 3 weeks with Alison, Ellie and Meg. We are driving down the Florida keys, then on to Miami and finally Orlando to do some serious theme park stuff!

We flew into Dallas Fort Worth and then onto Fort Lauderdale. 

Picking the hire car up was a bit of a trauma, after a long time travelling you don't want to be faced with making decisions! After doing the documentation with the hire company you walk through into a garage to be faced with lines of cars. They all have the keys on the dash and you just pick the one you want, oh god, please just give me a car! After a few minutes of "I like this one" "no, I like this one" "this ones nice" "oooohh look at this one" I plonked the cases in a car and said "right we are having this one" and drove off. As we were pulling out Ellie said "I thought we'd booked a full size car, this is mid size" I was too tired to care, I just wanted to sleep. 

San Sebastian and back to Blighty

After the BBK festival it was great to get to a nice hotel peel off the clothes we had been wearing for 3 days and have a warm shower and shave, bliss! We headed to the nearest sandy beach and promptly fell asleep for most of Sunday afternoon.

Beautiful beaches 

After a good sleep in the sunshine and feeling a bit more like ourselves, we set off to find a German bar that we had read about to watch the World Cup final. We gave our England shirts one last outing, after all it should have been England playing in this final! We settled down with a couple of good German beers and a meal of pork knuckle, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. We enjoyed the match and were pleased that it didn't go to penalties. Germany were the deserved winners and have played some good football throughout the tournament.

BBK Music Festival

We set off heading for the BBK festival in Bilbao, the Spanish equivalent of Glastonbury, a little jaded after our exertions in Pamplona.

On the way we decided we should get the van sorted so that we could rationalise the number of bags we needed to carry with us to the festival, as we also needed to take the tent and sleeping stuff etc. We pulled into a garage and set about the task of emptying the van. We were well into the process when I spotted in the corner of my eye a police car approaching, here we go, I thought. Three police men got out of the car and started off aggressively asking questions. We hadn't got a clue what they were asking us but they didn't appear to be full of the joys of spring. We did the usual "English" and did our best to explain that we were on a European tour and going to the  BBK festival, which didn't really have any impact, but as soon as we said we had been to the San Firmin festival (Pamplona), we got a few guttural si, si's and they left as quick as they had arrived. To be fair to them as we reviewed the carnage of boxes, bags, crates of beer, strewn all around us, we probably did look a bit suspect.

Madrid and Pamplona - Bull Run

Me and Ronnie

After visiting Seville and Cordoba, we started to make our way north and stopped off in Madrid for a couple of days. The staff in the hotel we were staying in were fantastic. I'd booked a double bed in error but the hotel let us have two double bedrooms at no extra charge, nice one, and it saved us having to build a wall of pillows down the middle of the bed!

We visited the Santeago Bernabau stadium on Monday, really good tour and got to have our photo taken with the European Cup, Madrid's 10th win in this competition. In the afternoon we went to the Prado Museum where there was a El Greco and Picasso exhibition - we do culture as well you know!

After the culture style and sophistication of Madrid, we packed up and moved on to Pamplona for the Bull Run. Its fair to say that everything we had been told about the festival and the 24 hour party was true. It was bedlam when we arrived, the narrow streets crammed full of (very happy) people. After getting to our accommodation we went for a walk and bought ourselves our white Pamplona running gear, with the red sash and bandanna. Everyone in Pamplona wears the same outfit, the ones who don't look a bit out of place.

Seville

Our arrival in Seville was interesting. As we negotiated our way round narrow streets with parked cars inches from the  wing mirror on one side and houses the other, we turned a corner and suddenly we were in the middle of a street market. "What the ....…..!" was quickly followed by some comments about the usefulness of the sat nav, followed by "mind them DVDs" as we edged past a pavement display of dodgy movies. We tried to buy a couple of t-shirts through the van window, but we were unable to negotiate the price down. No one appeared to be bothered by us driving through, they probably just thought mad Brits!

Granada

Granada is the furthest point south in our journey. It is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains - which contain the highest point in Spain and the most southerly skiing resort in continental Europe. As we drove into Granada in 34° temp we could still see the snow on the top of the mountains. After 5 days relaxing by the sea it felt like arriving in a different country as we drove through Granada's busy cosmopolitan streets.

We were having a tapas and beer, deciding in which bar we would watch the match when Bob commented on all the birds flying round, I think he said "its a wonder they don't crap in someone's coffee" next thing he feels a splat on his head! Its a pity we left our hats in Javea, but if I remember correctly, that's a sign of good luck. Did it mean that Belgium (our adopted team, because we like their beer) would beat USA? We settled down in a bar with Belgium fans on one side and Americans on the other.

Benifallet & Javea

After a great time in Barca, we started to make our way to Javea, where we have a 5 day stop over to recharge.

We had a couple of stops on the way down, the first was in Cambrils, where we met Sue and Andrew for a couple of drinks. Bob knows Sue and Andrew through the Sunday night pub quiz team in the Sportsman on Benty Lane in Sheffield. As they were in Cambrils and we were passing through it would have been rude not to meet up.

After Cambrils we overnighted in a small village called Benifallet where Bobs friend Pete and his wife June live. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay with them as when they heard we were coming they had to go back back to England for an appointment. (Just bad timing I think!)

Barcelona - Mosquito, Fastnet and Nick from Colorado.

Barcalona what a city! Due to good planning or maybe good fortune we arrived on the fiesta of St Joan or mid summer solstice. Fireworks, fires and drumming bands.

When we arrived we went for a walk round the old quarter we saw the Sagrada Familia, Arc de Triomf and walked up Las Ramblas. In the early evening fireworks were randomly being let off and drumming bands with crowds following them were sambering through the streets. A great atmosphere was starting to build.

We decided to have something to eat and found a restaurant called Mosquito, with a Chinese tapas menu and a range of beers from around the world. Both the food and beers were excellent, and the staff very helpful. They told us to go to the beach to see the best of the festival.

Argeles

After a couple of days in Frejus we moved on to Argeles which is in the foot hills of the Pyrenees. The mountains provide a stunning backdrop to the town.

We had made good time on the journey, arriving before the mobile was ready for us. While waiting we thought we would take advantage of the pool. All the campsites we have been on have their own set of rules and regulations unique to them. The warning signs in Argeles were there when we entered the pool area and there were two bronzed lifeguards strutting around a pool the size of a bath tub.

Menton to Monaco and Frejus

We left Menton and drove down the coast road to Monaco and Monte Carlo. It was a stunning drive with fantastic scenery. We parked the van in the casino car park in between a Bentley convertible and a Lamborghini. We went for an explore round the marina and walked part of the Grand Prix circuit. Don't think we bumped into anyone famous but to be honest I could have been stood next to someone and I wouldn't have known!

After Monaco we continued the drive to Frejus and our next camp site. Up until now the campsite sat nav coordinates have been pretty reliable. However this time they took us to what looked like the farm used for the 'Carry on Camping' film. After driving round Frejus for the 4th time we decided we should give in and read the directions we'd been given. Then as if by magic we found the proper campsite! The sat nav is now in the bin!

Milan to Menton

Milano was interestng and I left thinking that I would like to come back at some point and explore the city a bit further.

The hotel had a car park where you leave the car on a lift and then it disappears and its autoparked in a 'box' somewhere underground. We didn't realise this so when we arrived at reception they asked us for our passports which of course are in the van. So they have to retrieve the van - 15 mins later with passports in hand and the van safely back in another box we got to our room. It then dawned on us that all our bags are still in the van! They were very good with us when we plucked up the courage to get the van out for a second time!

Venice

After a couple of chill out days in Coatia we packed up and drove back through Slovenia into Italy.

The campsite site in Ca'Savio is set amongst pine trees and fronted by an endless sandy beech. Having checked in our first task was to find a bar showing the England match.  As we were playing Italy we expected high excitement, but it all felt a bit subdued.

With a suitable bar selected we donned our '66 England shirts and made our way to 'Dave's bar (not the proper name he just looked like a Dave I used to work with) and braced ourselves for the game.

Salzburg and Croatia

Its only a week since we left home, but with the amount we have crammed in during that time it feels as though we have been away for a lot longer.

So far we have covered 7 countries and approx 1200 miles since we set off, now that we are in Croatia we have a couple of rest days and of course the start of the world cup.

The sound of music tour was excellent, visiting some of the more recognisable locations from the movie and managing to fit in some singing on the coach as we travelled around. Did you know that the house and garden scenes were filmed in two separate locations so when you see Maria in the garden talking to Herr Von Trapp with his back to the house they were some considerable distance apart! That's Hollywood for you.

Day 4&5 Munich

We are having some problems loading photos, so I'm hoping that the blogger fairy at home can work some magic for me. In the meantime we have posted some photos on Facebook and Twitter.

The journey from Dusseldorf to Munich was our longest drive of the trip approx 7 hours with stops. We had the air con working full blast (both windows were open) and I ended up with the 'bus drivers arm' (right arm bright red).

Munich has been good, but very hot 34°+. We have done the touristy Hofbrauhaus and had plenty of white sausage (not a euphemism) and sauerkraut.

Day 1-3 Euro Tour

We are on day 3 of the grand tour. We are cracking on at a fair pace and the weather so far has been unbelievable.

We set off with the van packed to the rafters and England flags flying proudly from the van windows.

We made good time to Eurotunnel and as we passed through passport control being two blokes in a white van we duly were asked to pull into the customs inspection line. Once the back door to the van was opened the customs guy took one look and and obviously thought life was too short and waived us through.

First stop was Bruges, the hotel was good and our host very hospitable. We had a good chat about our European tour and all the countries we would be visiting. She then asked if we could move the van to a car park approx 100 yds down the road, yes no problem - 30 minutes later we appeared back at the hotel having got lost driving round Bruges, you could see this woman thinking how on earth are they going to get round Europe if they can't find a car park at the end of the road!

The Baston Bakery

A selection of our breads

Friday was bread making day with Paul the Baker Dawn and Meg joined me to do battle with the dough and make some good home made bread.

Paul arrived with bags of flour and just about every utensil you could possibly need to make and bake bread. We started with sourdough and progressed to crusty French and then wholemeal bread. It wasn't long before the kitchen had a good coating of flour and the aroma of home made bread started to fill the air.

We learnt lots of good tips, especially to be confident with the dough and not let it sense any fear! There was a sense of healthy competition as to who was going to bake the best bread, and we made our own distinct cuts on top of the bread so we could identify each loaf as it came out of the oven. In the end it really didn't matter, they all looked and tasted beautiful. we even managed to make some plaited bread and bread sticks for good measure. When we had finished the kitchen looked like a flour mill and we had a mountain of bread to eat. We were all suitably proud of our efforts, it really was proper 'artisan bread'.

Beer, Bread and Le Grand Tour

Its been a while since I last updated my blog, I know you won't believe this but I have just been so busy, I've not had the time to sit down and write it!

Rail Ale

Sunshine at Barrow Hill

I went to the Rail Ale festival at Barrow Hill with Steve and Neil. This beer festival is a regular on our annual beer festival circuit and its always an experience. The weather this year was glorious, shorts and t-shirts, it was so different to last year, when it was so cold that at one point my lips had turned blue, and I had to buy a hat to enable me to keep on drinking! 

The festival is held in the last working round house at Barrow Hill and the bars are set against a backdrop of steam and diesel locomotives. The festival is getting more mainstream these days, but it is the coming together of the beer tickers and train spotters, which presents some good people watching opportunities. Now, I would never call myself a style guru or an expert on fashion, but there are always some interesting, and I suspect unintentional, fashion statements made that it almost makes me look on trend!

The Real Alhambra

Despite letting the FA know that we have received our retro '66 England shirts, it looks like Roy Hodgson has decided not to include me and Bob in his England World Cup squad. This is a bit of a blow as it was our last opportunity to get to the finals in Brazil, but it does mean that we can now make our final preparations for our alternative European World Cup Tour - or Le Grand Tour (I'm almost bilingual)

Over the last couple of days I have been booking the stadium tours at Bayern Munich, Inter & AC Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid. This has been more of a struggle than it should have been, if ever you want to waste a bit of time have a go at booking an arena tour at the Allianz Arena, it will drive you to the edge of despair! After a couple of emails and a phone call to Nikolas - yes I'm fluent in German as well (not really his English was perfect) all was sorted.

The long and winding path

The disappearing path

Most of you will have heard of the Virgin Experience Days, where you can treat yourself to such things as Afternoon Tea at the Ritz, I believe there are also things such as Boot Camps where you can go to improve your fitness. For a couple of days this week myself and Bob have been on the self imposed official Lincolnshire Gulag Experience, breaking up paths and lumping concrete posts and gravel boards around. I'm not sure it will catch on.

We had to take up a 60ft concrete path and put up a new fence, all part of the grand building work plan. Monday arrived the sun was shining and after a leisurely breakfast we fired up the breaker and off we went. there was a sense of optimism that we would knock this job off quickly. However It soon became clear that the path wasn't going to give itself up easily, we tried various techniques, but found that the old 'smash it with a sledge hammer then break it with the breaker technique' worked quite well. A cheer went up every time a hairline crack appeared that could be exploited.

Is it my eyes?

For a while now the girls have been able to beat me at computer games on the Wii. They think its because they are just skilful and that my reactions are slowing with age, I think its because I can't see the TV properly. Alison has told me to go and get my eyes tested, which would be the logical thing to do, but I decided to opt for the manly solution to this problem and buy a bigger TV. I've had to launch a subtle campaign over the last few months of dropping hints, and I think in the end I just broke Alison's spirit and she said if you see one just buy it .... yesss!

So I've been on the look out for a bargain and whilst taking Alison's dad shopping in Sainsburys in Sheffield, there it was, it just called out to me. 50" Panasonic Plasma reduced to clear. I've never been one for impulse buying, I usually like to do a bit of research, read the reviews etc, but unfortunately this TV was only available in store and not on line, so it was now or never. After a bit of deliberating I parted with my cash and out of the warehouse appears this monster box. It was only at this point that I realised that I hadn't properly thought through how I was going to get the TV back home.

Brett the Buffet Bouncer

Springtime in Scarborough!

Bob and I arrived in Scarborough to dank weather, sea fret so thick you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. We navigated our way to the hotel and after dropping our bags off we asked if there was any food "yes, there's loads of food left from a buffet, go and help yourself" so we did! Well we tried, just as we loaded up with pork pie and sausage rolls we were accosted by Brett who wanted to know who we were. It turns out that Brett wasn't trying to develop his networking skills, he was the guardian of the buffet, which was a private function for the CAMRA National Executive. Not wanting to cause a diplomatic incident at our first CAMRA AGM, we departed with good grace ....well in a fashion, we ate a couple of sausage rolls as our token petulant protest before we were ejected. I've been turfed out of some places in my time, but it's my first buffet eviction!

Disney Time

We booked our family holiday to Florida this week. We fly from Heathrow to Fort Lauderdale for 3 weeks in the Sunshine State. There is a list as long as your arm of things we plan to do; snorkeling in the coral reef off the Keys, taking a hoverboat in the Everglades and of course calling in to see Mickey and all his chums. Meg has asked if she can go swimming with Dolphins, I'm not sure if the budget will stretch to that, but I have said that she can roll with the crocodiles in the Everglades. It will be just as much fun and its free! (only joking Meg).

I have added in a couple of new tabs to the blog so you can see some details of the European tour and some of the things I will be doing in May.

I'm just on the train to the CAMRA AGM in Scarborough so watch out for further updates on the blog or twitter.

Let me know if you have any comments on the blog and any tips for Florida. 

Sunshine on a rainy day

For those of you that have never been to GoApe, its an experience that you should try. Swinging about from ropes and bridges in the tree tops does give you a bit of a buzz. As you come down zip wires the knack is to land on your feet, but as you can see from the video, I managed to scoop up and bring home enough bark chippings to suppress garden weeds for a year, 3 days later I'm still finding chippings everywhere!

Gorilla & Meg the Monkey

I only had one minor incident where when standing on metal rings, suspended by ropes, one of the metal rings ended up round my thigh. To this day I've no idea how I managed that, and as I tried to extricate myself whilst trying to balance on one leg in mid air it caused great amusement to all the young monkeys following me.

I got the certificate to say I've done it, which is framed on the living room wall!

It's Wednesday everywhere you look

I've had a very busy few days, starting with the felling of the pine tree in our front garden. Now this tree has some history, it has grown from a seedling handout by Father Christmas (to the daughter of Rodger, who built our house) and over the years it has grown to be a 28ft feature of the village.

When Bob arrived Tuesday lunchtime, equipped with chain saw, we had many a discussion about how we should fell the tree as it is hemmed in on all four sides, by our garage a neighbours garage the footpath and our garden. We had some scratching of heads and decided that we would go and have a couple of pints to work through our strategy. Equipped with beer mats and pencils we deliberated, but then as the second pint went down, we agreed that on cartoons we had seen over the years, the characters always cut a wedge shape out of the tree, shout timber and the tree falls exactly where it is expected to.  So we ditched the beer mats and pencils and decided just to go for it.

Roll up, roll up, get your bargains here

The Peacock at Rowsley

Every year a group of us go out to celebrate our bonus from work. As a group of friends we have known each other for a good few years and it's always a nice occasion when we get together. This year as our outing coincided with the start of my long leave and birthday, we decided to go upmarket and celebrate in style, so on Saturday evening we went to The Peacock at Rowsley, Derbyshire. Champagne prinks at Dawn and Steve's whilst waiting for the taxi, followed by a beautiful drive through the Peak District past Chatsworth House, to the restaurant.

Todays biggest decision was ...

On Tuesday morning I woke up to beautiful sunshine, what a lovely day to go for a cycle ride around Rutland Water.  I jumped out of bed and set about the task of finding the roof bars, cycle rack and cycle pump in the garage.  For those of you who have seen the clutter on my desk at work, you will understand why this was a challenge.  As my wife left for work, her departing shot was "don't over do it, running Monday, cycling Tuesday, you don't have to do it all in your first week", to which I replied " yes, yes, I'll be fine, I am only 51 you know"

I arrived at Rutland Water to what must have been a force 9 gale , I'm not exaggerating here, well maybe a little, but it was windy.  The decision of the day was, in which direction should I set off?  Anti clockwise felt a bit rebellious, so off I went, with vigour, to tackle the 17 miles in record time.

The Fox & Hounds nr Manton

I hadn't been going long when the bike came to a shuddering halt, as several people cycled past offering help, I replied, with a courteous "no I'm fine thank you", I realised that the rear wheel quick release mechanism had quickly released and the rear wheel had unseated itself.  Just at this point I received a text from Russell, who after explaining my situation offered the best advice I've ever received "well are you anywhere near a pub".  It was only 11:30 but not wanting to ignore such sage advice, I limped into the Fox and Hounds.  After a couple of beers and the bike fully repaired I set off again to complete my cycle challenge.

My cycle seat is described as gel comfort, now if ever there was cause for a legal challenge under the trade descriptions act this is it.  As the cycle ride progressed, my backside got so uncomfortable that I just had to keep stopping and resting.  The hills got more challenging and the wind seemed to notice my difficulties and decided to gust just that bit stronger to try and break my spirit.  Time went on and my daughters were texting and phoning to make sure I was still alive.  This wasn't going to be beat me, its only pain, you can do it.  As I cycled over the dam wall, the wind was so strong that I thought I was cycling backwards, especially as two pensioners and then a 5 year old overtook me. I've never been so pleased to see my car.

Back home and straight in the bath, my wife arrived home " what are you doing in the bath in the middle of the afternoon?" was probably not an unreasonable question.  "I ache so much, and I cant sit down, I just needed a bath to sooth my aching muscles", " but you've only been round Rutland Water, what are you going to be like when you cycle coast to coast".  It can't be as windy or as hilly as that in the North Yorkshire moors can it? Well, for certain, before then I'm buying some padded shorts and a new saddle ........... gel comfort my arse!

Simon, a friend in the village has recently been on a trip to Ypres, where he was able to lay a cross for the guys that fell from Baston, and lay a wreath at the Menin Gate.  We are visiting Ypres as part of our European tour, so it will be good to hear about his experience when we catch up over a few beers and a meal with our good lady wives on Thursday.

Finally today's words of advice on how not to make cheese on toast

I'm off to tidy the garage

That's the way to run a conference

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me.  51 today...  how old?  My daughters managed to get a few 'old man' comments in,  I did feel a little bit sad at this - not the comments as I'll get my own back when they least expect it - but 51!! To lift my spirits Alison offered to take me for a coffee ....to the garden centre!!!  OMG that's it, middle age has well and truly arrived. You know when you go to the garden centre on a Sunday morning for a coffee, the next step will be buying clothes in Marks & Spencer.
As I peered over the top of my latte and looked around the room, I realised that in this company I was still a young whipper snapper.  Just then it dawned on me, there was method in Alison's madness, I'm not so old after all! Trash the Silver Line phone number, put the pipe and slippers away and get the Lycra out, I'm off for a cycle ride in the morning.

Yesterday I received my conference joining instructions for the CAMRA AGM in Scarborough. Now this is the way to run a conference. The joining instructions come with a beer list for the bar and a pub guide for Scarborough, Malton, Filey and Whitby. So many beers so little time!! The bar opens when you arrive for registration on the Friday and again at 12:30 and 18:00 on Saturday and Sunday. If only more conferences were like this.  Roll on 25th April.

Just to celebrate my birthday I have managed a couple of  Scarlet Macaw beers from Oakham Ales my favourite beer of the moment, give it a try.

Must remember no work tomorrow

It all started at the White Horse.................

It's been a long time coming, but long leave has finally arrived.  There were tearful farewells to my work colleagues on Thursday - well not really, but I will miss the daily banter that goes around.

I thought a good start to my long leave would be to get a request played on Simon Mayo's All Request Friday show on Radio 2.  The excitement built as I eventually got through by phone to the researcher, I gave it my all;

"7 months off work, wow" she said "that's amazing, what are you doing" well i said " I'm travelling around Europe, going to Florida with my family, doing some building work on my house, and lots of weekends away, starting with a beer festival in Scarborough at the end of April" "wow, that's amazing, and where do you work" " at John Lewis, its time off for good behaviour" "OMG you've got a proper job" errr well yes, "wow that's amazing, what song do you want and why" " well" I said " i would like I'm on Top of the World by Imagine Dragons, because I am and at the end of my European Tour I'm going to the BBK Festival (if i survive the bull run in Pamplona), and Imagine Dragons are one of the groups performing" "wow - look I'm going to put smiley faces all over this and pass it to the producer and they will phone you back"

Smiley faces! is that how the BBC works, maybe its a technique we could use in John Lewis.  The tension grew in the Riley household - well I was excited, Simon talked to David about his 10th birthday, someone stuck in a traffic jam on the M25, someone off to Ascot for the first time - boring boring, long leave trumps this lot I thought, ring phone ring ...... but alas no phone call.  Never mind, this looks like a challenge, get on Radio 2 before the end of my long leave!

Prinks before a family meal at the White Horse www.thewhitehorsebaston.co.uk.  Lovely meal together to celebrate the start of my long leave.  Drinks flowed, followed by a short stagger back across the road, before collapsing to watch 'Gogglebox - the show where you watch people watching TV...... mmmm I wonder ...... is it the drink talking, or should I try to get on TV rather than the radio.  I can feel an email coming on in the morning!

Long leave has officially started! Wow, that's amazing, smiley faces all round